Material working apparatus



March 15, 1938. s. P. M DANIELS MATERIAL WORKING APPARATUS Filed June 20, 1936 FIG. I

FIG. 2

FIG. 4

INVENTOR $.P. mom/51.5 BY

,4 r [ORA/E v Patented Mar. 15, 1938 PATENT OFFICE MATERIAL WORKING APPARATUS Shryock P. McDaniels, Maplewood, N. J assignor to Westcrn Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 20, 1936, Serial No. 86,239

4 Claims.

This invention relates to material working apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus for ejecting blanked articles from blanked material. :There are certain types of material working machines, particularly certain punch presses constructed to cut blanks from a sheet or strip of sheet material from which the sheet material is delivered with the blanks properly cut but still held frictionally in situ in the matrix.

'- An object of the present invention is to provide simple, rugged and reliable means for separating such blanks from the matrix sheet, which shall also be capable of convenient, rapid and accurate adjustment for operation with any one of a large 15. variety of sizes and shapes of blanks.

In one embodiment, the invention contemplates auxiliary means to be attached to the bed or base of a punch press of conventional construction to support a matrix of sheet material com- 20 ingfrom the tools of the press and having cut blanks frictionally held therein, together with means attachable to the ram of the press and provided with a clamp to hold the matrix momentarily immovable on the support and with 25 positionally adjustable knock out pins to drive the blanks from the matrix, the support having adjustable members defining an adjustably variable opening for the passage of the blanks.

Other. objects and features of the invention 30.; will appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical r parts in the several figures and in which Fig. 1 is a broken view in front elevation of a knock out device constructed in accordance with the invention and applied to a punch press;

Fig. 2 is a partial plan view thereof on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1; I

Fig. 3 is a partial reverse plan view thereof on the line 33 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 4 is a detached perspective view of one of the knockout pins and its base.

45 In the accompanying drawing, referring particularly to Fig. 1, one embodiment of this invention is illustrated as used in connection with a compound blanking and perforating punch and die indicated at It] which is operatively connected 50 to a punch press, a frame II and a reciprocatory ram I2 of the punch press being fragmentarily illustrated. The compound blanking and perforating punch and die Ill and the punch press are of a well known type and the details of construc- 55 tion thereof have been omitted from the present application, since it is not essential to a complete understanding of the present invention.

It is believed sufficient-herein to state that in the operation of the punch and die IU of the type mentioned, a strip of material I 3 is intermittently 5 advanced in a horizontal plane therethro-ugh from right to left as shown in Fig. 1 by means well known in the art. At the termination of each advance movement of the material [3, the punch and die I Ois operated during an advance and re- 10 turn movement of the punch press ram 12 to perforate and blank an article I 4 out of the material and reinsert the article therein.

The article ejecting apparatus, indicated generally by the numeral I! (Fig. 1) in the present 15 embodiment thereof as used in connection with a material working apparatus of the type of above referred to punch and die, is supported on a shelf or bracket I8 fixed to the punch press frame H at the left side thereof.

A bolster I9 is securedon or formed integral with the upper face of the shelf or bracket l8 and is formed to define two parallel inverted T slots 20 to receive the heads of a plurality of adjustment and clamping bolts 2|, which serve to adjustably secure a pair of pillow blocks 22. These blocks may have any contour adapted to the particular form and size of blank under consideration. In the present instance, the form of blank I 4 chosen to illustrate the use of the invention is a simple skew parallelogram. The pillow blocks shown may be conveniently formed with a semicircular outer contour 23 and a diametrical, straight inner face 24. These blocks are further provided with arcuate vertical slots 25 through which the bolts 2| pass. By shifting the bolts 2| in the slots 20 and in the slots 25, the blocks and more particularly their edges 24 may be given a large variety of orientations and separations, making it possible to vary the gap between the faces 24 widely as to both shape and size.

The bracket l8 has a large central opening 26 and the bolster IS a central opening 21, through which blanks knocked out of the strip l3 between the blocks 22 may fall; and if desired, a hopper 28 or the like may be installed inthe aperture 26 to catch the blanks and lead them toa suitable receptacle not shown.

On the ram I2 is rigidly secured a laterally extending arm 30 having at its outer end an upwardly extending guide 3| running in a corresponding guide 32 supported on any convenient fixed member of the machine frame. On the under side of the outer end of the arm 30 is rigidy secured a base member 33 having the form of a generally rectangular plate. Four screws 34 passing loosely through corresponding apertures in the base 33 are secured at their lower ends in a fiat presser plate 35 having a central aperture 35. Compression springs 31 located coaxially about the screws 35 hold the plate 35 and base 33 resiliently apart. Three slotted members 38 are adjustably mounted on the under face of the base 33 by means or screws 39 and each carries a vertically downwardly extending knockout pin 40. The pins 30 extend down into or through the aperture 36.

In operation the press in reciprocates the plunger or ram 12 vertically in regular up and down motion to out a blank I l from the strip l3 at each reciprocation, and the strip 53 is automatically stepped along to the left at each stroke, being held stationary during the blanking operation. At each reciprocation of the ram IE, .it carries the arm 30 down with it. The presser plate 35 is'thus pressed down and holds the strip I3 firmly against the pillow blocks 22 under the pressure of the springs- 31, the screws 36 being free to slide in the apertures in the base 33 which house and guide them.

The pins 40 being rigidly secured to the base 33 drive down through the aperture 36, the strip I3 and into the opening between the faces 25 of the pillow blocks 22, thus driving the blank M located in the path of their travel, out of the strip E3 to fall through the aperture 2'! into the hopper 28. Thus at each stroke of the press, a blank is cut in the press and a blank is knocked out of the matrix by the pins 4-0.

Inspection of the figures will show that since more or less than three pins til may be mounted on the base 33 and since each pin may be individually located within the area defined by the'rim of the aperture 36 independently of the other pins, and since the pillow blocks 22 are capable of adjustment to allow passage between them of any size or shape of blank capable of passing through the aperture 27, the device as disclosed is capable of being adapted by mere adjustment in a rapid, simple and convenient fashion, to handle a variety of shapes and sizes of blanks limited only by the form and dimensions of the apertures 36 and 2?.

The invention is not limited to the exact form and mode of adjustability of the pillow blocks 22 nor of the knockout pin bases 38, which may be of any construction and form adapted to give the necessary range of adjustability. The embodiment herein disclosed is illustrative only and may bewidely modified and departed from in many ways without exceeding the scope and spirit of the invention as pointed out in and limited only by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for ejecting blanked articles from a sheet matrix, means to support a matrix and having an opening under the matrix of dimensions substantially like those of a blanked' from a sheet matrix, means to support a matrix adjustable to present an opening under the matrix of dimensions substantially like those of a blanked article frictionally held in the matrix, in combination with a single reciprocatory member having, a plurality of knockout members each independently adjustable on the reciprocatory member to enter the opening in the supporting means at substantially any part thereof within the contour of the blanked article.

3. In an apparatus for ejecting blanked articles from a sheet matrix, means to support a matrix and having an opening under the matrix of dimensions substantially like those of a blanked article frictionally held in the matrix and means to hold the matrix stationary on the supporting means, in combination with a single reciprocatory member having a plurality of knockout members each independently adjustable on the reciprocatory member to enter the opening in the supporting means at substantially any part thereof within the contour of'the blanked article.

4. In an apparatus for ejecting blanked articles from a sheet matrix, a stationary base member having an aperture therein, matrix supporting members mounted thereon and adjustable to present an opening between the supporting members of dimensions substantially like those of a blanked article frictionally held in a matrix supported on the members, a reciprocatory member, a plurality of knockout members mounted on the reciprocatory member and each independently adjustable thereon to enter the opening between the matrix supporting members at substantially any part thereof within the contour of the blanked article.

SHRYOCK P. MCDANIELS. 

